The newly popular three-day Military Diet is blowing up the interwebs after being pegged as the quickest way to lose 10 pounds in a week. But (as you might have guessed) dietitians say it’s straight-up crazy. (And when experts are calling a diet things like “ridiculous” and “crazy,” you know it’s bad.) The diet consists of three days of seemingly random guidelines followed by four days off the plan. You can supposedly repeat the process for weeks at a time.
On day one, breakfast is one cup of coffee or tea, a slice of toast, and a half-cup of canned tuna. On day two, dinner is two hot dogs (this is not a joke), a cup of broccoli, one-half cup of carrots, half a banana, and one-half cup of vanilla ice cream. No snacks allowed. You get the drift.
The result: You quickly drop water weight, yes, but you burn minimal fat and may also lose muscle, says Katie Ferraro, M.P.H., R.D. Yeah, that’s not good.
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Though the diet claims that following the three-day plan with four days of eating 1,500 calories of whole foods will keep your metabolism running on high, that’s a big, fat lie, says Ferraro.
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